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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Mideast crisis drives Bush to colorful language
2006-07-17
ST PETERSBURG, Russia (Reuters) - A microphone picked up an unaware President Bush saying on Monday Syria should press Hezbollah to "stop doing this shit" and that his secretary of state may go to the Middle East soon. Bush was talking privately to British Prime Minister Tony Blair during a lunch at the Group of Eight summit in St Petersburg about an upsurge of violence in the Middle East, not realizing a microphone was recording what he said.

"I think Condi (Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice) is going to go pretty soon," Bush said.

Blair replied: "Right, that's all that matters, it will take some time to get that together."
"You know how long it takes a woman to pack for a trip"
The two leaders also referred to an offer by Blair to help. Blair said Rice has "got to succeed" if she goes out to the region.
Bush replied: "What they need to do it to get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this shit."
.....before I really get f*&king pissed off and f&%kin bomb their f@$king asses back to the bleeping stone age."
Shortly afterwards Blair noticed the microphone and hastily switched it off, but not before the recording had reached news media.
Posted by:Steve

#9  Hence Iran is the primary source of the problem while Syria is more of a bit player / hanger-on. If this conversation was really intended to be private I'd expect Bush would have addressed the statement to either Iran, as the main source of the problem, or Iran and Syria, as the joint source of the problem. To me the fact that he singled out the weak sister of the pair for a comment that should send Baby Assad running for the nearest bomb shelter lends a bit of support to the above comments that this might not have been an accident.

Or maybe I just want to believe that Karl Rove really is this good. ;)
Posted by: AzCat   2006-07-17 14:32  

#8  Iran funds the Army of Allah (Hezb'Allah), but Damascus is the one that funnels their arms and hosts their leaders.
Posted by: lotp   2006-07-17 12:21  

#7  Odd that he left the Iranians out of that statement, unless of course it was intended for public consumption.
Posted by: AzCat   2006-07-17 12:18  

#6  Ya notice how often Bush "accidentally" leaves a mic on?
Posted by: Rob Crawford   2006-07-17 11:28  

#5  Yeah, I think Syria should get Hezbollah to stop doing this shit too. Well said, Mr. President.
Posted by: ex-lib   2006-07-17 11:00  

#4  Bush the poker player showing a few cards?
Posted by: Seafarious   2006-07-17 10:36  

#3  I kind of like this - what I heard on the inadvertant open mike is exactly what I would have expected. Same points, same words, same inflection. None of the typical politician's BS double-speak, one thing to the public, and something totally different in private (think Clinton, or muslim 'leader').
Posted by: glenmore   2006-07-17 10:30  

#2  I am starting to wonder about of dear friend Blair. He is a Leftist and this mic was discovered on by him of course after the slip of tongue. Also remember back the leaked memos about Aljazera, about planning on invading Iraq before openly admitted, about many other instances.

Maybe our mole and leaker is a little closer than thought.
Posted by: C-Low   2006-07-17 10:19  

#1  Sounds like Bush is in a real hurry to get that UN peacekeeping force going.
Posted by: Perfesser   2006-07-17 10:12  

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